INJURY FEAR FOR STOKES
Southgate’s plan to make his squad...
ENGLAND suffered a jolt yesterday when Ben Stokes complained of a hamstring injury that makes him a doubt for tomorrow’s must-win second Test against Pakistan. Surrey’s 19-year-old left-armer Sam Curran was last night on his way to join the England squad at Headingley and will make his debut if Stokes fails to recover. Stokes complained of a ‘tight’ hamstring and England sent for Curran, now poised to follow brother Tom, 23, into Test cricket.
GARETH SOUTHGATE will send his troops into battle against Tunisia on June 18 with one clear directive: be proactive, not reactive.
It is a message that has been drummed into the players since they reported for duty on May 20. Southgate has had enough of seeing England being passive on the world stage.
At Euro 2016 when Eric Dier gave England the lead in their opening game against Russia, they should have put their foot down on the accelerator. Instead they drew 1-1.
Similar instances have riddled England’s history at major tournaments. The team meetings at St george’s Park over the past week-and-a-half have been designed to ensure that doesn’t happen on Southgate’s watch. And players have no choice but to listen, with mobile phones forbidden during squad debriefs.
At their Staffordshire training base, Southgate and his staff have got England’s players working on a pressing game. The manager has developed a good relationship with Pep guardiola and fans can expect England to adopt City’s possession-based pressing style in Russia, though there are doubts over whether they have the technical quality to make such a stylish statement.
But Southgate’s team have had tailored sessions to ensure players have sufficient energy levels to execute the strategy he wants. Each player was provided with a training schedule adjusted for the number of games they played last season. Central defender Harry Maguire started all 38 Premier League games for Leicester and was pulled out of training earlier this week to ensure he isn’t overloaded before Saturday’s friendly against Nigeria at Wembley.
Team cohesion drills, which include short and sharp sprints, have been used increasingly during camp. At the moment sessions generally don’t last more than 90 minutes. If on occasion they train twice in a day, players will complete a light morning session before an afternoon of weights and mobility work.
Training has been designed to maintain rather than gain fitness. Avoiding muscular injuries has been another key consideration. one of the key reasons England opted against holding their pretournament camp abroad was to lower the risk of injury.
With travelling comes unnecessary fatigue. With fatigue comes injury. And travelling means you miss at least two days of training.
Tactical and shape work will be increasingly phased into sessions the closer it gets to the big kick-off.
Southgate, though, has already taken his players through some pattern-of-play work in small- sided games and will look at continuing his experiment of playing Kyle Walker on the right of three centre backs.
off the pitch, camaraderie is said to be very encouraging. Players have been at pains to stress that club divides within the squad no longer exist and an agreement between players not to bring phones down at dinner time has helped create an atmosphere of togetherness. It has also been pointed out to
Sportsmail that all players made a point of shaking hands in the moments before kick-off in the March friendlies against Holland and Italy.
Southgate is leaving no stone unturned as he attempts to repair England’s tarnished reputation. The definitive list of staff joining the team in Russia next month will be ratified by the FA next week.
In addition to Southgate’s closest lieutenants Steve Holland and goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson, the England manager will take a host of specialist staff in search of finding every advantage during the tournament.
Lead performance coaches Ben Rosenblatt and Bryce Kavanagh — who will also play a key role in players nutrition — will certainly be on the plane. So will self-proclaimed ‘ world’s No 1’ striker coach Allan Russell and the FA’s psychology expert Pippa grange.
It is understood the FA have considered installing a mobile cryotherapy chamber at their Russian training base to aid team doctor Robin Chakraverty and lead physio Steve Kemp’s team.
Players already have use of an altitude chamber and hydrotherapy suite at St george’s Park, and squad members have also undergone vigorous tests for asthma as part of their preparations.
The message is that this will be the best prepared England squad ever to travel to a World Cup.